INEC suffers setback, Appeal Court nullifies de-registration of 74 political parties

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday suffered setback in its regulatory functions over political parties. The Court of Appeal in its judgement nullified the de-registration of 74 political parties by the INEC after their poor performance in previous elections. The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja held that INEC did not follow due process in de-registering the political parties.

Accordingly, the appeal court upturned the judgement of a Federal High Court which upheld the de-registration of the 74 political parties by the INEC. The judges, therefore, declared the de-registration illegal, ordering INEC to relist the 74 parties.

Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo in of the Federal High Court, Abuja had in a judgment upheld INEC’s authority to de register political parties which failed to comply with the provisions of the law particularly Section 225 A of the 1999 Constitution as amended.